I love my beer and want whats best for it. Time and Temp question.

First, I made NCBeernut's Deception Cream Stout following the original recipe. I have it fermenting in the hall closet with a full head of Krausen after thirty hours. My house temp ranges from 60 to 67 night to day. I am thinking about giving it another 30-36 hours at that temp and then moving it to a tub with an aquarium heater that will keep it around 68-70.
I did quite a bit of reading before I settled on this. It seems like this will give the yeast a chance to finish things off with a nice steady temp. My question is, the recipe calls for this to sit in primary for a month. Will the temp be a problem over that length of time?

Thanks in advance for the replies.

No problems at all. Your plan sounds good to me. I believe ideally you want to start raising the temp when you are about 2/3 of the way through the fermentation in terms of gravity.

What yeast did you use??

I would leave it in the right temperature range (depending on the yeast, and if it does anything different at different temperature ranges) for the duration of the time... Depending on the OG, it could go 2-4 weeks, also depending on the fermentation temperature. Some yeasts (actually a good number of them) will produce more off flavors if you ferment too warm/hot... Cooler is often better, depending on what you're making.

With a stout, I would go more into the cooler temps than the warmer ones. Again, depends on the yeast you used...

You can check on it after ~3 weeks to see where it's at... Both as far as the gravity and taste departments. IF it tastes good, and the SG is in the area where the recipe says it would be, give it another few days and take another hydrometer reading and taste it... If the SG is stable (I would give at least 3 days between readings to make sure it's not moving slowly) then it's most likely hit the FG... But, tasting it will REALLY tell you if it's ready for bottle/keg...

Personally, I'm using ale yeast that's better in the lower range of temps... I have a strong Scotch ale that's yeast temperature range is 55-75F... I've been fermenting it at under 60-65F since the start... It's only two weeks in, so it has at least another 1-2 weeks before it's going to be ready (going to wait until 3 weeks in before sampling it)...

I always raise my temp when fermentation slows down. Usually 3-4 degrees, and then leave it at that temp until fermentation is complete. After that, I really dont think temp matters that much as the yeast are done and just cleaning up their mess

coypoo said:

I always raise my temp when fermentation slows down. Usually 3-4 degrees, and then leave it at that temp until fermentation is complete. After that, I really dont think temp matters that much as the yeast are done and just cleaning up their mess

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I let it go at the same temp for as long as it's fermenting... Or as close as I can get it where I am (no fermentation chamber yet)... Once the wort starts to cool on it's own, that means the yeast is slowing down, so I let it go to where it wants... Getting solid results with this method so far... Of course, I'm brewing with ale yeast mostly...

Golddiggie said:

I let it go at the same temp for as long as it's fermenting... Or as close as I can get it where I am (no fermentation chamber yet)... Once the wort starts to cool on it's own, that means the yeast is slowing down, so I let it go to where it wants... Getting solid results with this method so far... Of course, I'm brewing with ale yeast mostly...

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Yes, I agree. Keeping it at temp for the duration of fermenation is appropriate, but after a week, fermenation is over in most cases, and I dont see how a change in temperature (usually a drop in my case b/c the cold weather out here) would really effect anything that much.

Golddiggie said:

I let it go at the same temp for as long as it's fermenting... Or as close as I can get it where I am (no fermentation chamber yet)... Once the wort starts to cool on it's own, that means the yeast is slowing down, so I let it go to where it wants... Getting solid results with this method so far... Of course, I'm brewing with ale yeast mostly...

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I have a ferm chamber (lucikily for free), and for example I set my IPA at 63 this last time w/ US05. Whenver I walk by I check the temp reading, and as soon as I see the temp start to drop, that is when I increase the temp. I think that when fermenation slows down, that is when you need to raise the temp to make sure they yeast dont floc out early and have time to fully attenuate

Just be careful of it floccing early on one of those nights where it drops from 67 to 60. The decreasing temp can cause the yeast to floc and prevent full attenuation. Once it's done you don't have to worry about temp as much.

I live in Florida so 'not controlling fermentation temp' equals 'letting it warm up'. I keep it relatively constant during active fermentation in a water bath and then let the whole carboy/water bath naturally rise to room temp (between 70*-74* F). Letting the temp go on a roller coaster ride at the beginning seems a bit risky.

coypoo said:

Yes, I agree. Keeping it at temp for the duration of fermenation is appropriate, but after a week, fermenation is over in most cases, and I dont see how a change in temperature (usually a drop in my case b/c the cold weather out here) would really effect anything that much.

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I don't see a drop in temp being too much of an issue. But, I would still try to keep it at least within the temp range the yeast likes, or works at... Since they still have more to do, it makes more sense, to me, to make sure they don't go to sleep...

Where the beer is fermenting is usually within the yeast's happy zone...

My Yeast is Wyeast 1450
Flocculation: Low
Attenuation: 74-76%
Temperature Range: 60-70F
So I am right in the range most of the time, just thinking of eliminating the swings to avoid having it drop out earlier than it should.

Since it's a low flocculation yeast, I don't think you'll have an issue with it dropping out too soon. Also, as long as you keep it within the temperature range, it will remain active. More accurately, it will maintain good activity longer. Letting it cool will make it more sleepy, cooling too far will get it to drop out (too far below 60F)... I would avoid going to the top end of the scale if it was me. Even though they don't mention anything happening at any temp, I would feel safer keeping it in the bottom half of the range. Or at least in the middle 1/3 of the range.

If this is the first time you've used the yeast, better to be more cautious with it. If you've used it before with solid results at certain temps, then you could follow those again. I would just be sure to taste it before you decide to rack off of the yeast cake.

Thanks Golddiggie. I really appreciate all the info and experience available here at HBT.